Hampton Court again - winter tasks

The winter tasks continue to be quite hard.

Last week we were not needed in the morning as we had missed Ichiho - she had earlier gone to the woods to cut hazel branches, which we use to make support structures for beans and tomatoes. In the afternoon Hilary gave us a lift in a large van to the coppice in Home Park where we grow the hazel stools. It was quite complicated to get there and I don't think I could find it again. The Palace has a store there where we keep equipment for events, like barriers. Our job was simple - to pick up hazel branches from the pile and carry them to the van, and pile them up in the back. As the pile mounted in the back of the van the job became more difficult. The wood was so long many branches stuck out at the back. We got a lift back to the Kitchen Garden and unloaded into a big pile in the area where we keep compost and stores.

Coppiced hazel after cutting

This week I started with Maxine on digging in the clover, a winter manure, which will have to be done several times. There are plenty of worms at work in the soil which should be breaking the plants down but the plants are big and tough and are not breaking up very well, in fact many plants had recommenced growing. I resorted to digging holes and burying the plants upside down. I'm not sure when my method will be discovered. It's probably the only way of stopping the clover from growing again though.

Ichiho and Chris worked on cutting the hazel stems, which were where we left them last week, and sorting them into bundles by size, and then standing them up in the cubby hole where they are kept. All the old ones have vanished. There was nothing wrong with the old ones. It is all very odd. There seems to be no point except that the coppice needed cutting.

This passed the time well until lunch. Took a portion of my soup for lunch and had it in the mess room. Afterwards we had to barrow away the cuttings from our gooseberries, redcurrants and blackcurrants, which were all pruned last week. We had no more room left for all the old stalks and we have a great many bundles of newly cut hazel brush to keep in the cubby. So we trundled our wheelbarrows to the gardeners' yard several times, and threw the sticks in the trailer. We filled the trailer completely.

Blackcurrant showing cut stems

Then Ichiho helped Maxine with digging in the clover and Chris and I did some desultory hoeing. It was a pity we couldn't learn to do the pruning but perhaps it will happen next year.

Redcurrant

Diet, exercise, Hampton Court

So far the diet is going really well. I skip breakfast which is quite a sacrifice, but I have suspected for a long time that the small amount of muesli or banana I eat in the morning could be tipping the balance towards me gaining weight.

There is a NO SNACKING rule which the doctor is very stern about. If you need to snack, he writes, you should just drink water. You need nothing between meals. Your stomach is designed to go a long time between meals and you won't even feel hungry after the first few days. I think this is true. So far I have lost 3-4 pounds and some of it is off my double chin!! A visible difference. He predicts I will lose much more in the first week than I have but I think he must be predicting for men who burn calories faster. Few people burn calories slower than the post-menopausal woman, even very active ones. Went to another exercise class yesterday - arms and weights apart from the usual squats and abs exercises. Very good. The day before was a Hampton Court day.

Both Ichiho and Hilary were there and the tasks were to load the melon beds - the hotbeds - with compost or to move some semi-rotted compost from one bin to another. Chris and I did the first task which involved lots of loading and wheelbarrowing. Really, we work hard at HCP but of course, it's only for a short time. In winter we go home early so it's only three and a half hours of actual work and in summer it's four and a half hours. It can be a long afternoon in the summer.

We moved nearly all this to the melon beds.

Nasty stuff and not composting at the mo - too cold

Unfortunately, we tried to fill three of the beds instead of two but we hadn't moved too much stuff to the wrong bed. It won't take them long to rectify our mistake! Itchiho and Hilary both seem pretty fed up with the hotbeds which they have spent hours digging out. Hilary is getting some horse manure to boost the compost.

This is a pic of the new mound in the Magic Garden where we put some of the spent soil from the melon bed. The magic gardeners are still working hard on their landscaping.